The Biden administration has ordered the release of about 50,000 aliens into the United States with instructions to report to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) within 60 days under an honor system. Nearly 90 percent have failed to report.
There are at least 27,000 of those migrants who still are within the 60-day reporting window. At least 16,000 released for longer than 60 days have failed to report to ICE as expected.
A report published by Axios states, “That’s 2.4 no-shows for everyone that has checked in.”
The Biden White House cited limited space in highly overcrowded border holding facilities when the release of illegal aliens began in March. The aliens indicated a desire to seek asylum in the U.S. and have been released without an official date to appear in court.
Although ICE policy requires that asylum-seekers be issued a formal notice to appear on a specific date, the administration instructed that they be released with information on ICE office locations throughout the country. They are trusted to report at any designated site within 60 days.
The White House settled on this process as a “temporary” measure to accommodate the significantly increased number of apprehended border-crossers who made an asylum claim upon capture.
Along the Rio Grande, apprehensions have gone as high as 20,000 per day. In the last week, at least 7,300 illegal aliens were released into the U.S. without being served notice of an official court date.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) tweeted out the Axios article on July 27 with the comment, “This is what open borders look like. Biden lets in tens of thousands of illegal aliens WITHOUT court dates, and now only about 1 in 10 have checked in with ICE. This isn’t an accident.”
The White House’s Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Meira Bernstein said that “many migrants are proactively reaching out to ICE to begin their official immigration processing, including by receiving a Notice to Appear.”
She continued by saying that “those who do not report, like anyone who is in our country without legal status, are subject to removal by ICE.”
The White House stated on July 27 that “We will always be a nation of borders, and we will enforce our immigration laws in a way that is fair and just. We will continue to work to fortify an orderly immigration system.”
